“A diplomatic dispute that had blocked Finland and Sweden from joining NATO was resolved on Tuesday, when the alliance’s secretary general announced that Turkey had agreed to lift its veto on the membership applications of the two Nordic countries following three hours of talks,” the New York Times reports.
“If Finland and Sweden join NATO, it would mark one of the most significant expansions of the alliance in decades at a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has radically altered Europe’s security calculus. It also underscores how the war in Ukraine has undermined President Vladimir V. Putin’s aim of weakening NATO by pushing Sweden and Finland, which were neutral and nonaligned for decades, into the alliance’s arms.”
